Orange County vote to transfer nursing home ownership was insufficient, judge rules

GOSHEN >> The Orange County Legislature needed a supermajority vote of two-thirds of its members to transfer the county’s Valley View nursing home to a newly created local development corporation, a state Supreme Court justice has ruled.

A group of nursing home employees challenged the Legislature’s simple-majority vote, claiming it violated the law. The Legislature approved the transfer by way of a resolution, while the challenge, in the form of an Article 78 proceeding, claimed the action should have been carried out as a local law.

Orange County, through spokesman Dain Pascocello, that the county will appeal the decision.

County Legislator Michael Anagnostakis, who was opposed to transferring the nursing home to the local development corporation, said the ruling showed the decision was illegal.

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“I urge all my colleagues, once and for all, to stop these illegal actions on Valley View and join us in furthering the dramatic cost savings we are achieving at the facility so that we can keep it forever for the people of Orange County,” he said.

Pascocello countered that “there is a historical standard in place that states local development corporations are legally permitted to determine the long-term future of nursing homes. The purpose of this LDC was to explore options to ensure the sustainability of care at Valley View.”

Pascocello noted that Ulster County sold its nursing home, the Golden Hill Health Care Center in Kingston, with a 51 percent majority vote of the cCounty Legislature. The Orange County Legislature voted with a 57 percent majority to do the same, he said.